Mystery Girl
by A.I.T. - Author In Training
Summary: The trio meets a new girl in a time warp and discovers that she's also from New York in 2005. When someone shows up and claims to know a lot more about her, will they believe her? And did Joe meet this girl accidentally? Or has fate pushed them together?
1. Who is She?

**1. Who is She?**

"Ha! I win again!" The trio was in Joe's room playing video games. Well, Joe and Fred were, Sam was sitting and watching. Anna had snuck _The Book_ into her room and started looking at it. She touched this page in _The Book_ and it started to glow. She ran into Joe's room where the boys were.

"Anna! How many times do I have to tell you to stay out of my stuff!" Joe screamed at her.

He grabbed _The Book_ and tried to get it to cancel warping, but he couldn't. He, Fred, and Sam warped, but Anna jumped back just in time and stayed behind. They landed in an old town.

"Ow. Where are we?" Fred asked, rubbing his head.

Sam stood up. "Looks like an old New England town."

Fred looked around. "Joe do you have _The Book_?"

"Uh, no."

"What?"

"You had it." Sam said.

"Yeah, but, Anna's the one that made us warp." Joe replied, putting his hands up in defense.

"Well, it's _your_ book." Fred crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow.

"We need to learn how to use that thing." Sam looked down and shook his head.

"Hey look!" Joe pointed to a girl who had _The Book_ in her hands.

"_The Book_!" Fred and Sam yelled, grinning.

Fred and Joe started to run towards the girl.

"Wait!" Sam yelled.

They stopped. "What?

"You can't just run up there and snatch _The Book_ out of her hands." Sam advised.

"Why not? It's _our_ book." Fred replied.

"Just a minute ago, you said it was _my_ book and _my_ fault for losing it."

"So?"

"We'll just go over and ask for it." Joe said. He started to walk over to her. "Hey wait a minute."

They stopped.

"What now?" Fred said, getting aggravated.

"Look at her clothes. They look like clothes girls from our time era wear. Don't you think?" He pointed to her dark blue viper fit jeans and black v-neck military top.

"And?"

"Well, she could be another time warper."

"If she is then shouldn't she know about _The Book_?" Sam asked.

"Maybe. We should ask her." He started to walk towards her and Sam and Fred followed. "Uh, hi Miss." He weakly waved.

The girl turned around. She had light blonde hair with black streaks in it, and was wearing it in a ponytail. Her skin was lightly tanned, and her eyes were sky blue with a bright green ring around her iris. "Hi." She smiled.

"Uh, where did you find that book?"

"Oh, I found it over there." She pointed to an empty field with a few trees in it.

"Right. Well, my friends and I were reading a book like that one over there yesterday and we must have left it there by accident. So, uh, could we have it back please Miss?" Joe asked nervously.

"Joe, I'm not stupid. This book can warp you to the past and future and you weren't reading it yesterday you just warped here and it appeared in the field over there." The girl replied.

"Hey, how'd you know so much?"

"Um, I just do. By the way, my name's Sydney, not Miss." She handed him _The Book_. "Bye." She winked and hurriedly left.

"What was that about?"

"Who cares? We have _The Book_ and we can leave now." Fred said.

They warped back home and landed in Joe's bedroom. Joe put _The Book_ back in its safe place.

* * *

They were all watching TV, but Joe was still thinking about Sydney and trying to figure out how she knew so much about them. The movie that they were watching went to commercial.

"Doesn't it bother you at all that she knew so much about us and we didn't know anything about her?" Joe looked at them, shocked that they weren't thinking about this at all.

"Who?" Anna looked back and forth between the trio.

"This girl we met when we warped today. She knew some stuff about us and _The Book_. It's no big deal." Fred waved his hand dismissively.

"But we've never met her before. That doesn't strike you as odd? Or stalkerish at the least?" Joe stared at Fred.

"Dude, relax. Like you said, she was probably another time warper and would probably know about _The Book_." Fred replied without taking his eyes off the TV.

"First of all, if she was a time warper, she still wouldn't know our names and she never said she was a time warper, you know."

"But she was wearing modern clothing like the clothes we wear today. How do you explain that?" Sam asked him.

"I'm not saying she's not a time warper I'm just saying she never said she was. She just knew about _The Book_ and wore modern clothing."

"Joe, she probably was a time warper and I bet if you went out you'd see her." Anna told him.

"I don't care about seeing her I just want to know how she knew so much about us and _The Book_." Joe sat up.

"Hmm… What was her name?" Anna looked at him.

"Sydney."

"Uh huh."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"The movie's back on." Fred said, shushing them.

When the movie was over, Fred and Sam went home and Anna went back to her room. Joe tried to sleep that night, but he couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious girl. He got up, got out The Book, and started to look through it to see if there was a list of warpers in it. There wasn't. He put _The Book_ back in the box and fell back on his bed to fall asleep.

* * *

When he woke up the next day it was noon. Fred and Sam had been calling all morning to see if they could come over but he wasn't awake so they said to tell Joe to call them back later. He did and Sam and Fred came over and started to play video games. Except Joe wasn't really paying attention.

"Joe you usually play better than this. Sam could play better than this." Fred said, beating him, again.

"Hey. I'm right here." Sam said defensively.

"You aren't still thinking about that girl are you?"

"What? No." He snapped out of his thoughts. Of course he was still thinking about the mystery girl.

Anna walked in. "You're lying."

"No I'm not. Now get out of my room." Joe tried to shoo her out, but she wouldn't budge.

"No. You're still thinking about that girl. I'm your sister, I know when you're lying."

"Her name is Sydney, and no, I'm not. Now get out." He pointed to the door.

"If you aren't thinking about her than how come you're making sure I don't call her "that girl"?

"Just get out." He glared at her.

Anna smiled but she didn't leave. "You like her."

Fred and Sam looked at Joe.

"What?" Joe yelled, a slight blush on his cheeks.

"You like her, or at least think she's cute. I'm a girl, we know this stuff."

"Anna, I don't like her. I just want to know how she knew so much about us. Besides I only saw her once."

"So? It's called love at first sight. Face it, you like any girl with brown eyes."

"Her eyes are blue, with a bright green ring around her iris. Not brown." He crossed his arms, triumphant.

"This proves my point even more."

"Wh- what? I don't like her! I just want to know how she knew so much. Now get out of my room!"

Anna shrugged. "Whatever." She left.

"Dude, calm down. She was probably just messing with you like she normally does." Fred said, shooting him a strange glance.

Joe's mom walked in before Joe could respond.

"Mom, if I made her cry, it was her fault."

"What?" His mom asked, giving him a "what did you do now?" look.

He shook his head. "Nevermind."

"Joe, we have to go shopping and get some things. Your friends can come back later."

"Alright. See you guys later."

"Bye." They left.

Joe, Anna, and their mom left for the mall. Where someone special was waiting for them.


	2. Remember Me?

**2. Remember Me?**

"Joe, honey, here's some money. You can go get something that you want." She handed Joe a twenty dollar bill.

"Ok." He left towards the sports store. He needed to get a new baseball bat, considering Fred kept "borrowing" his. On his way he went by the food court.

"Oh my gosh!" Joe looked over to where a girl and two of her friends were sitting. "These fries are delicious!" Joe winced. The girl's voice was painfully loud. She had coffee colored skin and shoulder length, auburn hair with dark brown eyes. She wore a black and white striped, pleated, nautical tube topwith a black and white, mod dotted skirt and black, jeweled, bow ballet flats. She stuffed her face with fries. Another girl, who was sitting across from her, looked familiar to Joe. The boy sitting next to the familiar looking girl just starred. "What?"

"Do you need to cram it in your mouth so fast, Crystal?" The boy asked. He had black hair with silver dyed bangs and dark blue eyes. He looked pale and skinny. He was wearing a black/light grey, contrast front, sleeveless cardigan with a grey, shallow-v t-shirt underneath and light grey, color faded jeans and charcoal, Jersey high top sneakers. "How can you eat those disgusting things? I can hardly look at you when you do something that's so revolting." He flicked his hand over his eyes.

"Do your parents not feed you or something?" The other girl questioned. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was wearing a Black Metal Mulisha kali top with grey wash-out Almost Famous premium skinny cargo jeans.

"Well for your information, Jake and Sydney, they're good, really, really good." Crystal smiled and thrust more fries in her face.

Joe gasped. It was _her_!

"Let's get back on topic, please?" Jake said putting his hand down, but not looking at Crystal.

"How can we? Dylan and Megan aren't here yet. They probably got caught up on one of their dates."

"I wouldn't be surprised. They are so…" He paused, waving his hand in the air and looking for the right word. "Gooey."

"Agreed. They are the clingiest couple ever. They agree on everything and are always making up couple names for each other."

"Seriously. It's repulsive how couply they are. Dyley, you're my big cuddle bug. And you're my little honey bunch, Meggy." Jake switched his voice back and forth.

Sydney and Crystal laughed.

Joe went up to a fast food place and got a soda. He sat at the table right behind Sydney, Crystal, and Jake so he could listen in.

"Speak of the devil. Here come the love birds now." Crystal pointed as two people walked over.

"How much do you want to bet that as soon as they sit down they'll start saying there pet names for each other?" Jake asked.

The two people sat down next to Crystal. "Oh Dyley Willy, that was the best movie evers," the girl said. She had long black hair with teal eyes and was wearing a purple and black, Infamous scripty skulls, tube top and black, Volcom frochickie, short shorts.

"I knew you would like it Meggy Weggy." The boy, Dylan, replied. He had silver eyes and brown hair. He was pretty pale. He wore a faded black, Hurley chancellor t-shirt with faded black, RVCA romero jeans. They nuzzled noses.

"Told you." Jake looked at Crystal and Sydney.

"What?" Megan and Dylan looked at him.

"Oh nothing." He covered his mouth to hide his smile.

"About time you guys showed up." Sydney sat up and crossed her arms.

"Sorry, the movie was longer than we thought." Dylan shrugged, not taking his eyes off of Megan.

"Whatever. Did you get the gig?"

"Yeah, we go on at eight this Saturday."

"Awesome." She smiled.

"We have to practice a lot. Oh! And can we _puh_-lease meet for outfits _before_ the show this time?" He stared at Crystal.

"What?" She asked defensively.

"You know what. We do not need a repeat of last time. You need to get a stylist. Next time you dare dress yourself, call me first."

"Hater."

"Calm down. Crystal, ya, you don't make the best fashion statements. Jake, don't be so gay-possessive over her."

The way Sydney stopped the argument reminded Joe of how he had to stop Fred and Sam all the time.

"Fine. What songs are we going to do?"

"Well, we should do some songs that are already songs, and then do some of our own original stuff. Same as always."

"Well, like, what songs, Miss Leader?"

"Uh… how about "Misery Business", "Ignorance", and "Careful"? Then we could do some of our songs."

Jake shrugged. "Works for me. Although I would love it if-"

"We're not doing showtunes."

"Oh come on, you love Broadway as much as I do."

"Yeah, on Broadway. I don't feel like going around singing stuff from Mama Mia!, or Wicked."

"Agreed. I'm going to go get some more fries. They are so good!" Crystal tried to get out of the seat, but she couldn't because Megan and Dylan were flirting and ignoring the outside world.

"I'll get them. The chances of them moving are slim to none." Crystal handed Sydney some money. Sydney got out of the seat and went to the counter to get Crystal's fries.

Joe got out of his seat and followed Sydney. "Uh, hi Sydney."

Sydney turned around. "Do I know you?"

"It's me, Joe. Don't you remember?"

"No."

"Yesterday, we met back at that old New England town. You had," He paused to look around and make sure no one was listening. "_The Book_ with you."

"Are you sure, cause I don't remember anything. And why are you looking around and acting all secretive?"

"Well, yeah."

"Well, I don't even know who you are, and how would I even get to an old New England town? It's not like I can go back into the past."

"But-"

"Hey Syd! We're goin to The House of Rock to check the place out. Come on!" Crystal shouted from across the mall. Several shoppers glared in her direction.

"K! Hold on! Well, I got to go, but I'll see you around?" She smiled.

"Sure."

She ran off and joined her friends. Joe sighed. Why didn't she remember?


	3. Time to Figure Her Out

**3. Time to Figure Her Out**

"But guys, I was sure it was her."

"Apparently not. Otherwise she would have remembered you." Fred said.

"How otherwise would she look just like her and have the same name?" Joe replied.

"Twin?" Sam offered.

"I doubt it. She wouldn't have the same name too."

"Maybe it was her before she warped and saw us. It's possible."

"I guess."

"Dude, you're letting this get to you. Just relax." Fred was tired of how Joe was obsessing over this whole thing.

"Guys, she knew about us. She could be working for Mad Jack or something."

"If she was working for Mad Jack she wouldn't have given us _The Book_ when we were back at that town." Sam explained.

"I guess you're right, but she could've done it to win our trust or something. I still want to know how she knew so much about us and then when I saw her today, just totally forget everything."

"Well, there's no way to find out. So just forget about it. Ok?" Joe just looked at Fred. Why wouldn't he care?

* * *

Sydney and her friends went to the House of Rock to check the place out.

"Seems good. What do you guys think?" Sydney looked at the band. They all nodded their heads in agreement. "Ok. Now you said we can go on this Saturday at eight, right?"

"Yeah. But for sound check you might wanna be here around six." The owner said.

"Alright, we'll see you then." Dylan and Megan went on another date. Jake and Crystal followed Sydney back home. When they got there, they ran up to her room. Jake and Crystal sat on Sydney's bed. They crossed their legs and rested their chins on their palms in a perfect sync.

"What?" Sydney raised an eyebrow at them.

"Who were you talking to before?" Crystal smiled curiously.

"I've talked to a lot of people before. You might wanna be more specific."

"At the mall, when you were getting Crystal more fries, the cutie you were talking to in line." Jake's eyes sparkled with interest.

"Oh, him? I don't know. Somebody who claims he knows me from before." She shrugged and slouched down in her seat.

"Does he have a name? I bet it's something exotic like Alejandro, Renaldo, or Damani." Jake smiled at the thought.

"I think it was Joe or something like that."

"Oh." Jake slumped down.

"Stalker." Crystal said.

"I doubt it. He didn't look that old. Does it really even matter?"

"Does it?" Jake and Crystal leaned forward.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason." They looked at each other and smiled.

"It's always a reason with you two." Sydney crossed her arms. "Spill."

"Well, normal people, when they meet stalkers, they call for help." Crystal said.

"And don't smile their flirty smile." Jake added.

"So?"

"You were smiling a lot and didn't even call mall security." Jake spoke.

"Where are you going with this?"

"You know where we're going with this."

Sydney looked confused for a moment, and then her eyes widened. "What? How could I... why would you even... that's ridiculous!"

"Oh come on. Someone has a _secret admirer_."

"And that someone likes that secret admirer back. Oh! It'll be like a romantic movie! Two strangers fall in love, but they don't know that they will and they realize it with the help of their best friends." Jake wrapped his arm around Crystal. "Oh my god! You have to let me plan your wedding! Oh and the kids you'll have!" Jake shook with glee. "I'm euphoric just at the thought!"

Crystal shrugged Jake's arm off. "Why are we just now finding out about this?" She crossed her arms.

"Because I've never met him before! Seriously guys, it was just some weird conversation."

"Uh huh…"

"Sure…"

* * *

Mad Jack sat in his lair, ranting on to himself. "Ahh! That stupid nephew of mine. How am I ever going to get _The Book_ if he and his little friends keep on stopping me?" He went over to his bookshelf. "There has to be something here that can help me." He scanned through the books. "What's this?" He looked at the page. "Now this, this could help me a lot." He closed the book and laughed evilly. "All I have to do is find one of these gods or goddesses, and _The Book_ will be mine!" He laughed evilly again and marched off.


	4. We Meet Again

**4. We Meet Again**

The next day Sydney and her friends were rehearsing for their show. They were currently taking a break.

"Man we rock." Dylan said, wrapping his arm around Megan.

She smiled and snuggled up to him. "Totally. We're too good for small shows. This is New York! We should be playing Madison Square Garden! Heart On a Wire needs to be in bright lights! We have an amazing drummer," She wrapped her arms around Dylan. "an amazing guitarist," She pointed to Jake. "an amazing singer," She pointed to Sydney. "and an amazing bassist." She pointed to Crystal.

"Not to mention our amazing keyboardist." Dylan nuzzled Megan's neck. She smiled and they kissed.

Sydney rolled her eyes. "Way to dream big guys."

"Hey if you're gonna dream, might as well dream big, right?" Crystal smiled.

"Anyway, back to reality. Do you guys wanna get back to rehearsing or do you wanna go get some smoothies at Ray's?"

"Smoothies."

* * *

Meanwhile, Sam and Fred were at Joe's house hanging out as usual.

"I'm bored." Fred sighed.

"We heard you the first fifty times," Sam said.

"Yeah, well, I'm bored _and_ hungry."

"Oh, shocker." Sam waved his hands for fake emphasis.

"It is?"

Sam rolled his eyes.

"Do you guys want to go get some pizza at Ray's?" Joe offered.

"Sure." The guys left to Ray's.

* * *

"The only bad thing about Ray's," Fred took a large bite from his pizza. "Is that you have to go all the way to Manhattan to eat here. Boy is it worth it though." He stuffed his face with pizza.

"You're such a pig." Sam sat back.

"Thank you."

Joe rolled his eyes. Sydney and her friends walked in. Joe's eyes widened. "Guys look." They turned towards Sydney. "Not directly. She'll see you!"

"Who'll see us?" Fred looked around.

"Sydney."

"That girl we saw back in that New England town?" Sam looked around as well.

"Yeah. I told you guys I saw her at the mall."

Sam peered around the corner of his seat. "It does look a lot like her."

"Told you."

"How many times do I have to tell you? Forget about that time warp already. You're starting to get on my nerves, and now you've got Sam into it too." Fred said.

"Well, Fred I'm kinda starting to side with Joe about this whole thing. First, we run into her back in that English town. She knows us, but we know nothing about her. Then, Joe sees her at the mall, and she remembers nothing of the sort. It just doesn't make sense. Something is definitely going on there."

"Well unlike you guys, I'm going to sit here and enjoy my pizza." He took another large bite.

"You have fun with that."

"What do you think we should do?" Sam asked.

Joe shrugged. "I don't know."

"How about, forget about it?" Fred offered.

Joe and Sam looked at him. "Don't you have a pizza to enjoy?"

"Well, we can't just sit here and do nothing but stare. What if she sees us and comes over?"

"Well..." They walked by, not noticing them at all. They sat in the booth behind them. Joe and Sam started to talk in quiet voices. "They just walked by and didn't notice us."

"Yeah, but you never know. Let's just keep quiet about it for a bit and see what happens."

* * *

The band had just gotten their smoothies. Ray's was known for their fast service.

"Ok. So, we've agreed on the songs we are going to do and that we are going to be there at six for sound check. So now we just need to rehearse a few more times to get ready and see what we get, right?"

"Yeah pretty much."

"I hope we get a record deal." Megan clasped her hands together.

"You're such a dreamer." Dylan said.

"You wouldn't love me if I wasn't."

"Yes I would."

They smiled and started to kiss again.

"Hey Syd, can I talk to you for a sec?" Crystal asked.

"What?"

"Come with me."

"Why?"

"Just come."

"Why? Dylan and Crystal are lost in their own world."

"And I'm here. You can't leave me here with them. Plus, I _am_ her best friend you know." Jake said as he crossed his arms.

"_Second_ best friend."

"Please. Every girl would _kill_ for a gay best friend."

"So?"

"Guys!" Sydney put her arms up between them. "Can you shut it for once?"

Crystal grabbed Sydney's arm. She pulled her out of the booth and into the girl's bathroom.

* * *

"What do you think that was all about?" Joe asked.

"I don't know." Sam replied.

"Hey Joe, can you get me a drink?" Fred looked at him.

"Why?"

"Cause I'm thirsty."

"Can't you get it yourself?"

"No."

"Fine." He went up to the counter.

* * *

Jake walked in.

"Jake! This is the _girl's_ room." Crystal crossed her arms and glared.

"Then what are you doing in here?" He looked at the mirror and primped.

"Watch yourself."

"I am, and I is gorgeous." Jake continued to primp. He looked at Crystal. "Well? Talk."

Crystal rolled her eyes. "Did you notice who's here?"

"Besides Jake and us?"

"No, not here, here. Out there." She waved towards the door.

"No."

"Your secret admirer."

Jake spun around. "Really?" He looked at Sydney. "Wow, he _does_ like you."

Sydney glared at them and crossed her arms. "You're never going to let this go. Are you?"

Crystal shrugged. "Probably not."

"I know I won't stop until I hear wedding bells."

"Your minds work in strange ways."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Crystal said.

"Well depending on who you say that to it could be. I can see your future now, all locked up in a mental hospital."

"Shut up." Jake and Crystal glanced at each other for speaking at the same time.

"If you don't like him, prove it." Crystal smirked.

"How?"

"Go and talk to him."

"Fine I will." She turned to leave, but Jake caught her arm.

"Wait!" He pulled her in front of the mirror. "I left my bag at the table, but I could still make you turn heads."

"Jake, I'm saying hi, not going on a date."

"You never know. Now let's see, well you definitely have the figure." He outlined her curves and large chest. "Your hair has a lovely natural blonde shade. Let's see if we can style it a little better though." He started to flip her hair around.

Sydney swatted his hands away. "I'll be fine. I talk to guys all the time."

"Not secret admirers."

"Let her go Jake." Crystal pushed her out the door. She waved her over to the counter where Joe was standing, then pulled Jake back over to their booth.

Sydney sighed and headed over towards the counter. "Hey."

Joe turned, a little surprised, but happy. "Hi."

"You're Joe right? The kid from the mall?"

"Yeah." Joe nodded.

"Right, well about the whole mall thing, how about we just forget about it and start over and become friends. K?"

"Ok."

"So, what's up?"

"Not much. Fred is just too lazy to get his own stuff so he made me do it for him."

"Fred?" She gave him a confused look.

"Oh right." He pointed to where they were sitting. "Fred is the one stuffing his face with pizza and Sam is the nerdy one with glasses."

"Got it."

"And..." He nodded towards her table.

"Oh yeah." She pointed to the table where the others were sitting. "The two staring over here like hungry vultures are Jake and Crystal. Dylan and Megan are the two making out."

The waiter handed Joe Fred's drink. "Here you go."

"Thanks. I'll be right back." He went back over to their table and gave Fred his soda.

"What are you guys talking about?" Sam asked.

"Things." He left and went back over to Sydney. "Back. So, tell me about yourself."

"Well…" They talked for a while then Joe had to get home before his mom got mad so he, Fred, and Sam left. Sydney went back over to the others.

"So…" Crystal looked at her.

"So what?"

"You know what." Jake put his hands on his hips.

"There's a lot of what's out there. Be more specific."

"Nevermind." Jake pouted and Crystal rolled her eyes.

"Guys, it's getting late we better get home."

The others agreed.

"Rehearsal again tomorrow before the show?" Dylan stood up and grabbed Megan's hand.

"Yeah. See ya."


	5. Just Admit It

**5. Just Admit It**

"So what were you guys talking about?" Sam pushed his glasses up his nose.

"What do you mean?"

"Dude, you were talking to her the whole time we were there." Fred sat down on Joe's bed.

"Well, not much, I guess."

"That's not very helpful."

"We really just talked. Like we do. It's not like she's some special person or anything. We just talked and got to know each other really."

"Did you mention anything about _The Book_ or time traveling?"

"No. Why would I?"

"Well, now you've talked to her and got this whole thing over with. So, we're done with it. Right?" Fred stared up at him.

"I don't know. She did seem really nice and all."

Anna was right outside Joe's room spying on them and decided to walk in. "So, you do like her."

"What? Where did you come from?" Joe looked around, expecting to find some hidden door.

"You like her."

"Not like that. She's a friend. We talked about it yesterday."

"You have one little conversation with her, and now she's your friend?"

"Little? He talked to her the whole time we were there." Fred crossed his arms.

"So, instead of hanging out with your guy friends, you spent the whole time talking to a girl?"

"Yeah."

"How can you deny that you like her? It's so freaking obvious."

"Look, I don't like her she's just some cute girl I met and now we're friends."

"Cute?"

"I didn't say that." Joe blushed.

"All righty then. Whatever you say." She left.

"She's getting on my nerves, big time."

"You did say cute." Fred smirked.

"No I didn't."

"I heard cute." Sam joined in.

"Now you guys are just acting like Anna."

* * *

Sydney, Jake, and Crystal were waiting for Megan and Dylan to come to rehearsal.

"Alright, talk, now." Crystal crossed her arms and Jake put his hands on his hips.

"About what?" Sydney questioned with sarcasm.

"About yesterday. With… Joe, was it?" Crystal asked in a sweet, innocent voice.

Sydney shrugged. "We talked."

"But you went up to him and talked."

"Because you told me to."

"No, it was a test. If you didn't like him you wouldn't have talked to him at all and you talked to him the whole time we were there. Admit it, you like him." Jake smiled.

"He's cute, I'll give him that, but I know who I like and it isn't him."

"Very convincing." The others came and walked in and Crystal and Jake shut up about it.

* * *

Mad Jack sat in his lair planning. "Now let's see, all I have to do is find one of these time gods or goddesses, preferably a prince or princess. It shouldn't be that hard. According to my research there's one right here in New York. Time to find this... Sydney..."


	6. PreShow Annoyances

**6. Pre-Show Annoyances**

Joe, Sam, and Fred were still talking about Sydney.

"I don't think you're giving us all the details." Sam crossed his arms.

"I am. We talked, and now we're friends, and we said we should meet up more."

"Meet more? When are you gonna meet her again?"

"Well, she's in this band and tonight at 8 they're performing at the House of Rock."

"So, you're gonna go?"

"Why not? She said I could come backstage after the show if I wanted to."

Sam nodded. "Ok then."

* * *

Sydney and her friends were at the House of Rock, finishing up their sound check.

"Are you guys ready for this?" Sydney looked at her band and smiled.

They all smiled back. "Yeah!"

"We still have half an hour before the show starts. What do you want to do?"

"We're going to go, uh... look around the place." Dylan said nervously.

"You don't have to lie, we know what you want to do. Go ahead." She waved them off and they left.

Jake shook his head. "They're date obsessed."

"I know." Sydney stared at where they had just left.

"But..." Jake and Crystal turned back to Sydney.

"What?" She looked back and forth between them.

"Let's get back to you and Joe. I bet if you two got together you would be just like them."

Sydney sighed and rolled her eyes. "A, I don't want to be like them. B, I don't like him! I told you, I said he could come to the show tonight if he wanted to. Then after the show he could come back stage if he wanted to."

"Yeah. I know that, but you still haven't admitted you like him." Crystal smirked.

"Because I don't."

"Well honey, he's obviously gonna show up. So we have to fix you up!" Jake clapped his hands. "There's a Forever 21 across the street. I know that whole store in and out, plus I have my daddy's credit card. I'm thinking… black striped chiffon tiered mini-skirt with a dark blue Summer ruffled top. And for shoes, kako patent heels. You have great legs for skirts and heels. Why do you insist on wearing jeans and converse? It'll do no good to cover yourself up."

Sydney shoved him away. "I'm getting ready to go on stage to rock. I can't do that in a skirt and heels. And what's wrong with what I'm wearing?" She looked down at her black and red plaid corset/vest, black skinny jeans, and black converse. "I look fine.

"For a concert, yes, but a date? No, no, no." Jake shook his head. "Sweetie, you have a good sense of fashion, better than most people's," He looked at Crystal. "but you always go for the rocker chic look. I can help you look more feminine for dates. But now that I think about it, that top is nice. I bet if head over to Hot Topic, we can get a matching black grommet and chained pleated mini-skirt that would look fabulous on you!"

"Since when am I not feminine enough? And I'm not going on a date! You guys are turning this into something it's not."

Jake and Crystal shrugged. "You never know." They left to finish getting ready for the show.

* * *

A half hour later the show started. They started to play and, of course, Joe was there. He had visited Uncle Joe before the show and still had _The Book_ with him. After the show Sydney and the others went backstage.

"That was awesome!" Crystal was jumping up and down with excitement.

"I know." Sydney said in a failed attempt to calm her down.

"Dang, I am _tired_." Jake fanned himself with his hand and plopped down on the black leather couch.

"_Puh_-lease. You're just being your drama queen self." Crystal crashed down next to him. "But I am tired too." She took a big swig of her water bottle.

"Well, we're heading over to Jillian's. See you guys there?" Megan asked.

Sydney nodded. "Sure."

Megan and Dylan left, whispering to each other and holding hands.

Jake sat up and clasped his hands together. "Now that they're gone, we can continue to discuss your love life." Jake stood up and smiled at Sydney.

"I wasn't aware I had a love life." Sydney crossed her arms, tired of their game.

"Not yet maybe, but soon you will." Jake circled her. "I'm gonna need my make-up bag to fix you up. You're all sweaty from the show. Did you even put on make-up?"

"I don't wear make-up, you know that." Sydney waved him off like an annoying fly.

Jake continued to circle her. "Of course, but you need to at least wipe the sweat off of your forehead. And your face is redder than my Crimson Kiss Nars Lipstick in Jungle Red. You really rocked tonight didn't you?" Jake grabbed a rag off a hook on the wall and handed it to her.

Sydney dabbed her forehead and motioned for Crystal to toss her water bottle over. Sydney drained half the bottle in a matter of seconds. She turned to Jake. "Happy?"

"Are you going to let me put make-up on you?"

"No."

"At least put your hair down." Jake grabbed her ponytail holder and pulled it out.

"Ow!" Sydney rubbed the back of her head.

"Sorry." Jake split her hair and splayed it out over shoulders and smoothed it out with his fingers. "There. I wish you would let me put on some make-up though."

"Aren't you wearing enough?" Crystal voiced from the couch.

"I meant on her, smart alec."

Crystal smirked and stood up. She joined them and looked Sydney up and down. She nodded her approval. "It'll have to do. It's time."

"Time for what?" Sydney looked around. Crystal and Jake just stood there smiling. "What? Are you ok?"

"Oh, yeah." They both grinned mischievously.

"Then why are you smiling like that?

Crystal shrugged. "Well-"

Just then, Joe walked up behind them. "Hey."

Sydney turned around and smiled. "Hey."

"Well, we're heading to Jillian's to meet Megan and Dylan. Later." Crystal stuck her arm through Jake's and they bounced off.

"Jillian's?" Joe gave Sydney a quizzical glance.

"It's this awesome arcade place. Like a Chucky Cheese for teens. Except better games, better food, better prizes, and... just plain better. We go after every show. Jake's dad owns the place so we basically get stuff for free. But it's still fun."

"Cool. You guys did awesome out there by the way. I had no idea you had a voice like that."

Sydney smiled. "Thanks." She tucked the front of her hair behind her right ear. There was a pregnant silence after that. Sydney glanced down to see what Joe was holding. "What's that?" She pointed to _The Book_.

"Oh, uh, it's just some book I got for my birthday from my uncle. I was visiting him before I came here and I brought it to read while I was waiting for the show to start."

"Really? What's it about?"

"Uh, well, it's just a book about history. Nothing really exciting."

"Can I see it?" She reached for it.

"No." Joe held it away.

Sydney looked shocked at his protectiveness. "Why not?"

"Because, uh... well..." He couldn't think of an excuse. He decided just to tell her. What's the worst that could happen? She was just some girl right? "Ok. Well, to be honest, my uncle gave me this book for my birthday, like I said, but, well, it's not just some ordinary book about history. It's also about the future and you can uh, really get into it." Sydney looked confused. Joe sighed. "This book allows people to time travel."


	7. I Can Prove It

**7. I Can Prove It**

Sydney gave him a look that said, _you just wait here while I go get some nice men in nice, white coats that have nice, big nets and nice needles_.

"It's true! My friends and I have warped a bunch of times. We've met Black Beard, Leonardo Da Vinci, and even our own great-granddaughters!"

"Sure you have." She was wide-eyed as she stepped away from him, clearly thinking he was a nut job.

"I have, and I can prove it!" He stepped closer and locked eye contact with her. "Trust me."

She looked at him. "Okay..."

Joe grabbed _The Book_. "Where have you always wanted to go? Anywhere in time."

"Well, there's this one isle in Greece called Corfu that I love."

Joe smiled. "Corfu it is then."

Sydney smiled.

"Oh, and by the way, we don't have a clue how to warp and whenever we do warp we never actually want to and never end up when or where we want. We also lose the book and have a lot of near death experiences." Joe said quickly.

Sydney's beam quickly changed into a freaked out appearance. "What?"

Too late, Joe had already done something to _The Book_ and they were gone in a flash of green light.

* * *

They landed in an ally. Joe landed in a trash can head first and Sydney landed perfectly on her feet with _The Book_ in her hands. Joe got out of the trash can and took the trash off of him. Sydney was biting her lip, trying not to laugh, but failing.

"Be quiet." He flicked an apple core off his shoulder. He noticed _The Book_ in her hands. "That's weird." He tilted his head curiously.

"What?" She tilted her head back.

"_The Book_, look." He pointed to _The Book_. It was glowing a greenish color in her hands. "It's never done that before. It's also never landed in our hands either. Well, not for us anyway."

She handed him back _The Book_ and as soon as she stopped touching it, it stopped glowing green.

"Weirder. But, ok, I guess. Anyway, we're in Greece what do you want to do?"

Sydney smiled. "I have something in mind." She grabbed Joe's hand and ran off with Joe trying to keep up behind her.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see." She kept smiling and running.

"Have you been here before?"

"Maybe." She smirked.

"I thought you said you've never been here before?" Joe looked at the sites whizzing by him.

"I never said that. I said that I wanted to go to Corcyra."

"I thought this was Corfu?"

"It is."

"But you called it Corcyra."

Sydney faltered. "I did? Oh, slip of the tongue I guess." She ran on.

"Where are we going anyway?"

Sydney stopped for a second and glanced at him. "You really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Too bad. Think of this as payback for possibly getting me killed." She started to run again.

Joe followed her. "I'm getting tired. Are we almost there?"

"Yes we're almost there. You whine a lot. Now come on. I know you can run faster than that."

Joe smiled and sped up.

"We're here!" She stopped suddenly. Joe couldn't stop that fast and ended up tripping over a rock. Sydney laughed. "Smooth." She laughed some more.

"Gee, that didn't hurt or anything."

She stopped snickering and helped him up. "Sorry. Anyway we're here."

Joe looked around. "Where exactly is here?"

Sydney smiled. "Look over that wall." She pointed to an old, crumbling, stone wall about three feet high. Joe walked over and looked over it. "Holy…"

What he saw was breath taking. Over the wall was the sea. In front of it was a tropical garden filled with plants and old fountains. None of it looked like it had been touched by man. The gorgeous garden was filled with lively and exotic plants and flowers. The sea was clear and the color was a dazzling sapphire blue and it was flat as mirror. It was in a small cove surrounded by a beach with white sand that shone like crystals. There was an ancient stone church up on the hill to their left, looking over the water. Dolphins jumped in the horizon and colorful butterflies flew all around them and over the garden. Storks and cranes gracefully walked along the water's edge, barely making a ripple. Gecko's crawled up and down leafy green trees. Life was everywhere, but it was as quiet and serene as a paradise.

"I know."

"It's just so wow... and... wow." He leaned against the wall and rested his head on his hand. Sydney did the same next to him and sighed. Joe looked at her.

Sydney noticed this. "What?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing, it's just so… beautiful." His gazed lingered on her for a while before he snapped out of it and turned back to the view. He hoped he wasn't as red as he thought he was.

Sydney smiled and looked back out to the scene. "It's strange because no one knows it's here."

"No one? How could you miss this place?" Joe tossed his arms in the air to emphasize the area's greatness.

"Look around you. Do you see any people or houses around here?"

Joe looked around. "No."

"Well there's your answer. No one's here to know it's here."

"They have no idea what they're missing."

"I'm kinda glad actually."

"Why?"

"If everyone knew it was here, this place would be full of people and tourists. Corfu is a popular vacation place. It would ruin it."

"I guess that's true."

Sydney sighed and stared out at the view.

A mysterious dark figure appeared out of nowhere behind them. "I must say you are a hard person to find."

Sydney and Joe turned around. Joe's eyes widened.

"Who are you?" Sydney tried to peer at his hidden face.

Joe gulped. "Mad Jack."


	8. What Do You Want?

**8. What Do You Want?**

"I have to say, you are very hard to find. But now that I have, I wasn't expecting to see you here with young Joseph." Mad Jack studied his fingernails and smirked.

"Uh, Joe what is he talking about, and who exactly is he?" Sydney looked at him with an expectant look on her face.

"Yes _Joe, _tell your little _friend_ all about me." He leered at them.

"This is my evil uncle, Mad Jack." Mad Jack laughed when he said evil. Joe stepped in front of Sydney to protect her. He silently slipped her _The Book_ which immediately started glowing green as soon as she touched it. "He wants _The Book_ so he can rule all of space and time."

"Not this time Joseph. I'm here for your friend."

Joe looked back at Sydney. She just shrugged. He looked back to Mad Jack. "Why?"

"You don't know? Surprise, surprise. I will tell you this then, what she is, is more important than _The Book_ or any other time object, ever. Maybe, not as powerful, but close, very, very close." Mad Jack stepped forward. Joe took a step back and pushed Sydney back a step too.

"What exactly is she?"

"That is for me to know, and you to not know." He smiled evilly again and made an evil laugh to match. He stepped forward. Sydney and Joe were now pressed against the wall. Mad Jack continued to walk closer to them.

Sydney looked over the wall. She smiled. "We'd love to stay and find out more, but we have somewhere else to be now. Bye."

Joe didn't have time to look at her or ask what she was about to do before she wrapped her arms around his waist and jumped over the wall.

* * *

Joe screamed. Sydney put her hand over his mouth. Joe stopped and noticed that they had landed in a big bush. Sydney went under the bush, and pulled Joe under too, so that they could hide from Mad Jack.

Mad Jack walked over to the wall and looked over it. "Darn it. I almost had that time princess. Oh well. I'll get her soon enough." There was a flash of green light and he was gone. Sydney and Joe got out of the bush. While Sydney was brushing off the leaves and twigs that were on her Joe stared at her again. Sydney noticed again.

"You're staring again, at first it was cute, now it's kind of creepy to be honest."

"He just called you a... a... time princess."

"Well, you did call him mad. My guess is that he just lost it and was saying crazy things."

Joe shrugged and started taking off the leaves and branches that were on him.

"He's right you know."

Sydney and Joe turned around. Another person had walked up behind them. They had blonde hair cut into a bob. Pale green eyes with a bright green rings on the outer edge of her iris, like Sydney's. Her skin was tan, most likely from being outside. Her body was lean. She was wearing an olive green, babydoll tee with long, white, flare jeans, her white sandals barely poking out from the bottom.

"Ok, how many people are following you around and spying on us?" Sydney crossed her arms in annoyance.

"That I don't know, but I do know a lot about you," The new person said.

Sydney and Joe exchanged glances.

"I think they all want you." Joe said.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kayla, Time Goddess of the Present."


	9. You're Not Who You Think You Are

**9. You're Not Who You Think You Are**

Kayla smiled. She walked up to Sydney and started to walk around her in circles. "Yes, you have his eyes and her lovely hair." Kayla ran her fingers through Sydney's long blonde hair.

"Who's?" Sydney stepped back.

"Your parents of course."

"I've never looked like my parents. I got the recessive genes."

"Those parents, yes. I'm talking about your real parents, though."

"My real... what? Look, you're really freaking me out here. Why don't you just leave us alone?"

Kayla rolled her eyes. "You need to know who you are before it kills you."

"Before what kills me?" Sydney's face quickly changed from defensive to curious.

"Well, everything and everyone, but you need to learn the truth about yourself first. It's a long and complicated story. One we don't have time for."

"Truth? I think I know enough about myself. I am _me_, after all."

"Are you sure?" Kayla paused and looked at her.

"Yes." Sydney stood firm.

"Ok then. Where were you born?"

"St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan." She smirked, triumphant.

"No. What are your parent's names?"

Sydney looked like she'd been slapped. "Mike and Susan Fincher."

"No."

"What do you mean, no? I was born in New York and my parent's names are Mike and Susan!" Sydney stomped her foot in anger.

"This is what you were told. Mike and Susan are your adoptive parents. You were born in Draylon. Your real parent's names are John and Nicole. In other words, Father Time and the Goddess of Time Travel."

"Wh- What?"

"Like I said before, that man was right. You're a Time Princess, also known as a daughter of time. You just jumped over a three foot wall holding a ninety pound boy. Only a god would have that kind of strength and power."

"Ok… so everyone's crazy now." Joe stared at Kayla.

Sydney was looking directly into Kayla's eyes. "No... I think she's telling the truth."

Joe looked at Sydney. Kayla smiled.

"Ok, so what does all this mean then?" Joe turned back to Kayla, expecting an answer.

"For one, it means that John and Kerk will not be happy at all... most likely. Second, it means we have found one of the children from the prophecy."

"Prophecy?" Sydney and Joe exchanged glances.

"There is a prophecy stating that a great new evil will try to take over the entire space time continuum. You and another new mysterious warrior will be the ones to fight it. Whether you win or lose, we don't know."

"That's sounds kinda familiar." Joe said, lost in thought.

"What?" Sydney looked at him.

"Oh, uh, nothing." Joe pushed his thoughts aside.

"Ok." She turned back to Kayla. "And who is Kerk?"

"Your brother."

"My brother? But, I'm an only child." Kayla cocked an eyebrow at her. "Oh yeah. My entire life has been a lie."

"He is also the God of After Time."

"So wait, if everyone in my family is a god or goddess of something, am I _just_ a Time Princess? Cause I hate the whole princess thing, it sounds so… _prissy_." Sydney shivered.

"Well, you will be. No one knows you exist except your mother and me."

"What do you mean, no one knows I exist? I thought this was my family we were talking about!"

"When you were born your father hadn't exactly been in the fatherly mood. For your protection your mother sent you away. Then you got adopted. I've been keeping an eye on you ever since, per your mother's request."

Sydney's face changed from angry to upset, then back to angry. "Why was he in a not-so-fatherly mood?"

"Kerk tried to take over. He may have been four at the time but he was still capable of doing big things. Your father was mad at him and really did not want another child at the moment. If he knew about you, he would've killed you in an instant."

Sydney looked like she had just been slapped across the face.

"Look I know this is a lot to take in, but you have to come with me to Draylon."

"Wait, I just find out all of this and you expect me to just follow you to some place and act like all of this is just normal everyday stuff? Don't I get some time to let it sink in? What if I don't even want to even go?"

"Well, I can see why you would want to stay, but-"

"Then why are you asking me to?" Sydney clenched her fists and glared at Kayla.

"Look, if you don't get to Draylon, you could be in serious danger," Kayla tried to persuade her.

"I'll be fine."

"No you won't."

Sydney glared at her. "I said, I'll be fine! Leave me alone!" Sydney tried to push Kayla away. In an instant her eyes flashed green and a powerful green blast shot out of Sydney's hands. Kayla was blasted back over fifty feet. Sydney froze and looked at her hands. "What- What did I just do?"

Joe looked at her apprehensively. "Are you ok?"

Sydney shook her head and looked at him, tears in her eyes. "I don't think so."

Kayla stood up and slowly walked back over to them. "That is a perfect example of what I mean."

Sydney looked up at her. "I won't go, until you answer all of my questions."

"There are some things I am not allowed to talk about. Besides we don't have enough time."

Sydney crossed her arms. "Then forget about it."

She trudged off to the beach. Joe scurried after her.

Kayla sighed. "Nicole will not be happy about this…" She snapped her fingers. Green mist wrapped around her and in the blink of an eye, she was gone.


	10. Get Her

**10. Get Her**

"What?" Nicole screamed, her veins throbbing.

"I tried. She is very stubborn." Kayla tried to reason.

"Why am I surprised? Why must she be so stubborn?" Nicole paced back and forth.

"Because she is _your_ daughter." Nicole glared at her. "Sorry." Kayla broke eye contact to escape Nicole's stare.

"We have to get her to come here. It's crucial."

"I know. She just got mad, stalked off, and some boy that was there followed her."

Nicole stopped and looked up. "What boy?"

"There was this boy with her. I think he is actually the current holder of _The Book_."

"We need to get both of them up here."

"Well, I understand your daughter, but why do you want the boy? Because he has _The Book_? Or because of something else?"

"I have my reasons."

"Ok. I will try again, but nothing is guaranteed."

"Just hurry and make sure you get both of them here. Soon."

"Ok." She snapped her fingers and green mist surrounded her. Then, she disappeared.

* * *

Meanwhile, Joe and Sydney had run pretty far.

"Wait, Sydney..."

"What?" They ran all the way to the beach and Sydney was sitting with her knees against her chest and she had her arms wrapped around them. Her face was buried in her knees.

Joe sat down next to her. "Are you ok?" He panted when spoke, it had been a long and hard run.

"What do you think? I just found out I was adopted, part of some secret council of gods, could die at any moment, and basically my entire life has been a lie!"

Joe could tell she was holding back tears. "I know you're upset, but what if you really are in danger?"

"Whose side are you on? Maybe I don't want to go to... where ever she said." She waved her hand dismissively.

"I realize that, but maybe you should have found out more-"

"I don't care!" Sydney glared at him. Joe could've sworn her eyes flashed green. Sydney was getting more and more upset.

Joe remained calm. He gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Sydney..." She looked at him and locked eye contact. Her eyes seemed to soften a bit and she didn't seem as angry, but she was still upset. Her eyes were red and puffy like she had been crying. They stayed like that for a few minutes. Joe broke the silence. "You should find out more of what could happen to you."

Sydney sighed. "I guess I should have. But still, how can she expect me just to go with her after finding out that my dad doesn't even want me and wanted to kill me when I was born?" She looked back down at the sand.

"Well you don't know that for sure. He may have gotten over it. It _was_ ten years ago after all."

"It was twelve years ago, and yeah, _may _have.

"Well you may have been able to find out if-"

"If what? I went with her? It wouldn't help. If I did go and he _did _want to kill me he would have and I would be dead. If he didn't, I- I just don't want to leave my life behind, even if it has been a lie." Joe stared at Sydney and felt really sorry for her. Kayla appeared in front of them in a flare of green. They were surprised and jumped back.

"Alright. Now your mother wants both of you and this time she doesn't want me taking no for an answer. So both of you need to come with me, now." Kayla crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

"Tell me some things first." Sydney and Joe stood up.

"Fine."

"First, why does my mom want me _and _Joe?

"Well obviously she wants you because you are her daughter. I don't know why she has taken such interest in your friend."

"Alright. If I go, would my dad still want to kill me?"

"Well it's not like we were going to reveal you right away. Besides, you should be worrying about Kerk."

"Why?"

"It's a long story, but the bottom line is, you're the reason he did not succeed in his attempt to take control of Draylon. He would kill you in a heartbeat."

Sydney looked worried. "Okay... What would happen if I didn't go to... where ever you said?"

"It's Draylon. And do you think that other guy you two just saw is the only one who wants you? He's not even the worst. Others would try to kill you or take away your special abilities for themselves."

"My special abilities?"

"Child, you are capable of so many things that you don't know about. If you come to Draylon we can help you master them and you'll be able to protect yourself."

Sydney thought about it for a few moments. "So, if I don't go, I'll get killed, and if I do go, my brother will kill me?"

"We would be there to protect you. Nothing will happen, hopefully."

"_We_?"

"Your mother and me of course."

Sydney thought for a few more moments. Then she looked Joe directly in the eyes. He nodded. "I guess I'll go. Joe's coming to right?"

Kayla nodded. "Excellent." She snapped her fingers and they all warped to Draylon.


	11. Welcome To Draylon

**11. Welcome to Draylon**

They landed in a very large, circular room with eleven giant thrones surrounding them. At one end there was a spiral staircase with black railing that went down. It was the only visible way out of the room. The room was empty except for them. There was no ceiling above them, just clear sky. This was the first thing Sydney and Joe noticed.

"What do you do if it rains?" Joe asked. He was still looking up.

"It never rains here. It's always sunny with no clouds. All thanks to time magic." Kayla looked at them. "Come on, your mother would like to see you right away." Sydney stiffened. "Hurry." She left and Sydney and Joe sped after her.

As they were walking down the hall they saw a lot of interesting things. The place was just like an old English castle. It probably was too. Along the walls were giant windows that had different glass designs on them. The whole place was made of stone. At the end of the hallway was a giant arch. On the other side were more doors and stairs leading off to who knows where. They sauntered up to one of the doors and opened it. When they walked inside they saw a huge room.

"Wait here." She paced off through a door in the room.

Kayla came back out with another lady in front of her. The woman had medium length blonde hair, with light brown eyes. Her skin was lightly tanned. She was wearing a white cami with white flare jeans and gold sandals. She ran up to Sydney and hugged her very tightly.

"Can't... breathe..." Sydney choked out.

The person stepped away. "Sorry, it has been so long."

"So I'm guessing you must be-"

"Yes. I am Nicole, your mother." She smiled and hugged Sydney again. "Oh, there is so much I have to show to you. So much you and I have to do."

"Like?"

"Too many things to list at once. But I must talk to you alone for a bit. Kayla could you-" She looked over and noticed Joe for the first time. "Ah, so Kayla was right. You're visit here shall be very interesting. But as of now I want to talk to my daughter… alone. Kayla, show him where he'll be staying and give him a tour of the place please."

Kayla nodded. "Come on." She turned to leave. Joe weakly waved goodbye to Sydney and followed.

* * *

Three hours later, Joe was sitting on his bed in the room that Kayla said he would be staying in. He had finished the tour with Kayla about a half hour ago. His room had a desk, a bookshelf with a lot of books in it, a full sized bed, a small closet, and a window that had a view of a lake that was outside. Overall, he thought it seemed nice. Kayla said it was a dorm room for students at some school that was attached. He was thinking about the whole showdown thing. When Freddi and Jodie first told him about it they didn't say anything about someone who would help him out. He wondered why. Joe glanced up when Sydney ambled in. Joe looked up. She had jade green bangles on her wrists. Joe was surprised and slightly scared by what followed her into his room. It looked like a cheetah. Sydney sat down beside Joe and the cheetah lay down at her feet. Joe went wide eyed.

"Don't worry she won't hurt you unless I want her too. Her name is Santari. Nicole gave her to me. She's supposed to help protect me during training. Apparently, all the gods have an animal guardian that represents them. Mine just happens to be a cheetah. Once I'm done with training, I won't have to have her follow me around all the time. But she doesn't really have to follow me everywhere, just when I need her."

"Training?"

"Don't ask me. Nicole said it would just be a rough few weeks for us while we train at a place called the Warper Academy. It's part of this whole place. I'm guessing the dorms we got were for those students."

Joe stiffened at the mention of the Warper Academy. He knew so much. About that and the prophecy. Why couldn't he just tell her? "Okay." He still looked nervous about Santari being so close to him. "So, is that all she told you about? Or was there more?"

Sydney shrugged. "Not much. She basically just said I would have to be careful around Kerk and my dad. She gave me these bracelets and color contacts to hide my eyes." She pointed to her eyes and Joe noticed they were completely sky blue now. "She also showed me around the place and where my room is. And that was pretty much it. But-"

"But what?" Joe leaned forward.

"I could tell she was hiding something. I have no clue what though."

"Hmm... Well, we're here now. What do you want to do?"

Sydney yawned. "Sleep. It's almost one. I really want to get to bed after all that's happened today."

Joe looked at the clock that was on the desk in his room. He didn't notice it was so late. Now that he realized that, he noted he was really tired too. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Sydney got up. "I'll see you tomorrow then." Sydney left with Santari swiftly following behind her.

As soon as Joe's head hit the pillow, he fell asleep.


	12. The Lake Incident

**12. The Lake Incident**

Sydney was walking down the hall to see Joe the next day.

"How long do you think we will be able to keep her a secret?" She overheard some people talking.

"I don't know. Someone may see family resemblance or part of them could just know it immediately. We do give off that sense."

Sydney recognized who it was immediately, her mom and Kayla. She leaned against the wall to listen for more.

"We need to watch out for her _special_ powers. Are you sure we should send her to the academy so soon?" Kayla asked.

"Those bracelets should keep her stabilized for a while." Sydney looked down at the bracelets her mom gave her yesterday. They seemed normal. Sydney thought they were just a gift. What could they do? "We will worry about the prophecy for now and continue this conversation later."

Sydney heard their retreating footsteps. She hastily ran towards Joe's room. She slammed the door shut. He was lying on his bed looking through _The Book_. He looked up when she came in.

"Is something wrong?"

"Well, nothing's wrong really. I just heard my mom and Kayla talking about me."

Joe sat up. "What were they talking about?"

She sat down next to him on the bed. She repeated the conversation to him. When she was finished Joe looked stunned and slightly worried.

Joe was thinking about what Jodie and Freddi told him about the fight he would be in with Mad Jack. He was pretty sure that's what the prophecy was about. Should he tell her?

Sydney shook away her thoughts, and Joe snapped out of his. "Do you want to go around and explore this place?"

Joe nodded. "Sure."

They left with no idea where they were headed.

"In your room, I could tell you were holding something back from me." Sydney looked at him with inquiring eyes.

"What? No I wasn't." Joe wouldn't look her in the eyes.

"Yes you were. I could tell."

"How?"

"You had this look on your face like you were wondering whether to tell me something or not. What was it?"

"Well..." He sighed. He couldn't not tell her now. "One of the times I warped was with Freddi and Jodie to Florence. Freddi is Fred's great Granddaughter and Jodie is mine."

Sydney nodded, like this was normal everyday stuff. Although by now, nothing probably surprised her.

"When we warped they told me that I was destined to fight in some big showdown thing with that guy we saw in Greece, Mad Jack. But that's pretty much all they told me.

"Oh." She looked down and looked back up again. "And you think that that showdown thing is the same as the whole prophecy thing with me."

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you say anything to Kayla or Nicole yesterday about it?"

"I don't know. I just didn't."

"Well you might want to soon."

"I know I probably should. But I'll do that later. I don't even know if I'm right or not. We could be completely wrong about the whole thing. Let's just look around some more for now. Ok?"

They walked a little longer until they found an exit and went outside. It led to a small, peaceful lake. They sat down on the shore. Sydney sighed.

"What?" Joe took his eyes off the site before him and looked at her.

"Nothing, it's just this whole thing. I mean, I found out that I'm adopted and my real parents are Father Time and a Goddess and I'm destined for a prophecy that might be your whole showdown thing and that I supposedly have powers." She looked at her bracelets and sighed again. "It's all happening so fast."

"Well it's probably gonna be like that for a while."

"I know. I just wish it was happening slower."

"Well, from my experience, in this crazy warper life style things can get pretty weird. Besides, you can get in front of hundreds of people you don't even know and sing your heart out? But you can't handle all this?" He waved his arms out to show that 'all this' meant everything.

She smiled which made Joe smile too. "Part of me likes all this a little bit though. It's not all bad I guess."

"That's better. So, what do you like about it?"

"I get to go to an awesome place like this," She looked into Joe's eyes, "and I met you." They smiled. They hadn't realized until now how close their faces were. Only two inches apart and getting closer each second. Joe pushed her bangs out of her face. One inch and a half... one inch... half an inch...

"There you are!"

Sydney and Joe jumped apart and looked away, their faces redder than a tomato. They looked to see who had called for them. Kayla.

"You need to come with me, now." They got up and followed her into Draylon.

* * *

"It's time you met the others." Kayla had a quick walk.

"Others?" Joe and Sydney had to run to keep up.

"Other relatives."

"There are more? How big is this family?"

"Only twelve members, including you. Do not worry child. Just be careful not to let anything slip."

They walked back up to the room where they first warped in. This time all the chairs were full except one, most likely Kayla's.

A powerful looking man in the middle spoke up. He had dark black hair, with strands of grey mixed in. He was very tall, nearly seven feet. His skin was lightly tanned and his eyes were sky blue with a green ring around the iris. He seemed wise and strong, despite his age. "Are these the new students?"

"Yes. They should excel beyond any other students here. I thought they should be introduced to us. Maybe they could be candidates for deus verto."

John nodded. "We will see."

Joe and Sydney looked at each other with confused looks on their faces.

"Very well then. Welcome to Draylon. I am Father Time, but you may call me John." Joe and Sydney looked at each other again with nervous glances. "This is my wife, Nicole, Goddess of Time Travel." He pointed to her.

"We've met already." Nicole smiled a knowing smile.

"I see. You've met my sister-in-law, Kayla, Goddess of the Present." He gestured to Kayla.

"This is my brother, Scott, God of Clocks." He pointed to Scott. He had curly dark brown hair and silver eyes with a green ring around the iris, like all of the time gods seemed to have. He had a fairly large nose and thick eyebrows. He was a little heavy set, with pale skin.

"This is my other brother, Danny, God of Time Telling." He pointed to Danny. He seemed to be Scott's twin. The only difference was, Danny had a muscular build.

"This is my other sister-in-law, Zoe, Goddess of the Future." He pointed to Zoe. She was a mousy looking girl with small, icy blue eyes. Her hair was white blonde and short. She seemed to be very small, barely five foot five, but something about her gave off that she was not to be messed with or you would regret it. She was wearing a white, spaghetti strap, tank top with light blue denim shorts.

"My other sister-in-law, Sophie, Goddess of the Past." He pointed to Sophie. She was sitting straight with a huge grin on her face. She waved enthusiastically. She had long black hair that cascaded down her back. It was very wavy and gave her the stereotypical goddess look. Her skin was tan and matched the color of her light brown eyes, which, of course, had the trademark green ring. She had a plum colored tube top on with a light purple skirt.

"My niece, Katie, Goddess of Current Events." He pointed to her. Katie looked to be about fourteen and like she could really care less to be there. She had red curly hair and green eyes. She was wearing dark blue skinny jeans with a grey sweatshirt. She was talking to another fourteen year old girl sitting next to her.

"My other niece, Ciara, Goddess of Past Events." He pointed to her. She was talking to Katie and also looked like she didn't really want to be here. Her blonde hair was in a high ponytail, completely pulled back. She had silver eyes and was wearing a bright blue, v-neck shirt on with a white mini-skirt.

"My nephew, Matt, God of Future Events." He pointed to him. He had shaggy brown hair with light brown eyes. He was wearing baggy jeans and a dark green shirt.

"And this is my son, Kerk, God of After Time." He pointed to him. He said it with disgust in his voice and Kerk's expression was anything but friendly. Sydney and Joe looked at each other again with fear and nervousness. Kerk had dark black hair and dark brown eyes. He was really pale, tall, and lanky. He wore a black muscle-tee with dark blue jeans. His outfit made him look even more intimidating.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we were in the middle of a meeting. Kayla, please drop them off somewhere and come join us."

Kayla ushered them out of the room.

"You never told me you were my aunt."

"Sorry. I guess I forgot."

"So, how am I related to everyone in there?"

"Huh? Oh, Scott and Sophie are married and Ciara is their child. Danny and Zoë are married and Matt and Katie are their children. Sophie, Zoë and I are your mother's sisters."

"Figures she'd be the unmarried lonely one," Sydney whispered to Joe. He covered up his mouth to keep from laughing.

"What was that?" Kayla glanced back over her shoulder.

"Oh nothing." Sydney smirked.

"So, where are we going anyway?" Joe asked.

"It's time to show you two the school."


	13. Get Your Education

**13. Get Your Education**

They kept on walking for a bit. Kayla was walking ahead of Sydney and Joe.

Sydney began to whisper. "Are you ever gonna tell her?"

"Tell her what?" Joe whispered back.

"What you told me earlier about your whole showdown thing. They need to figure it out as soon as possible."

"Oh, that? I don't know. Maybe later."

"Well if you're going to tell her you should do it soon."

"Why can't you tell her? You're around her more than me."

"Because I don't want to. Besides you know more about it than I do. And you're around her right now."

"So?"

"So tell her."

"Later."

"Fine."

They kept walking a little more until they got to a large door. Kayla pushed it open. On the other side was a place that looked exactly like a boarding school or college. A lot of kids were walking around.

"This is the Warper Academy. Come on, I will show you around." She took Sydney and Joe around the school and showed them where all of the classes were.

"Do you have a decent grasp of the place?"

"I guess." They shrugged.

"Good. You start tomorrow. Now, I must go back to the other gods and goddesses. I will see you later on." Kayla left and Sydney and Joe went back to Joe's room.

"Well that was a-" Sydney began.

"Interesting day." Joe finished.

"Yup. And tomorrow's gonna be even better I bet." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"I know, I can't wait." Joe replied, equally sarcastic. They laughed a little. They were trying to forget the incident at the lake that happened earlier, but it just kept on coming back to their minds.

"Well, I better get back to my room. See ya."

"Bye."

* * *

Joe woke up on the floor with a sharp pain in his back. "Ow."

"You're a really heavy sleeper you know that?" Joe looked up to see Sydney standing over him looking down at him.

"Did you have to push me off the bed?" He sat up and leaned against his bed and rubbed his shoulders.

"Yes. You're a heavy sleeper and I tried telling you to wake up and shaking you but you wouldn't wake up, so I just pushed you off. Which I did enjoy doing by the way." Joe glared at her and Sydney just smirked at him. "You better hurry up and get ready if you don't want to be late." Sydney held out her hand for Joe to take. He did and she helped him up.

"Late for what?"

"Did you forget already? The Warper Academy, remember? Kayla said we would start today."

"Oh yeah." His back still hurt and he started to rub his shoulders again. "Geez, what did you do? Dislocate my spine?"

"Sorry, strength of a god."

"Sorry doesn't help much."

"Well someone isn't a morning person. Grouchy much?"

"What would you do if someone pushed you off your bed, possibly breaking your spine, just to wake you up?"

"First of all I didn't break it. Second if that's how you feel I'll just leave." She started to leave but Joe rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand she turned around.

"That's not what I meant." Sydney smiled and Joe let go of her hand, although part of him didn't really want to. "Wait here." He went into his closet and came out a few minutes later dressed in his usual attire and ready to go. Sydney was sitting on his bed when he came out. "Happy?"

"Almost."

"Why 'almost'?"

Sydney looked at him in the eye and smiled a flirty smile. "Reasons. Now come on, it's time to go to school."

On the way there, they ran into Kayla. "There you are. I've been looking all over for you. There are some things I have to explain. Talk to each of the teachers before you begin your classes. Your schedule is simple. All you have to do is follow the classes in a circle. Be careful. Don't get to friendly with a lot of people. And don't tell anybody anything about yourselves. Just make up something and lie. Got it?"

"I guess." Sydney replied.

"Good. The teachers will give you everything you need when you talk to them." They reached the door that separated the school from Draylon Castle. "Have fun." She pushed them through the door and closed it behind them.

"Well, she seemed eager to get rid of us." Sydney looked back at the now closed door. "Come on we better get to our first class. Kayla said we needed to talk to the teachers before we started each class."

"Right. So where _is_ our first class?"

"She said that we had to follow the classes in a circle."

"And the circle begins where?"

"Um…" She looked around and noticed that the doors for the classes had numbers on them. "I guess we start at one." She pointed to a classroom door with the number 1 beside it.

They walked down to the classroom and noticed someone sitting behind a desk. They went up to them.

"Uh, Hi." Sydney said.

The person looked up at them and smiled. "Hi. You two must be new here."

"Uh, yeah."

"Well then welcome. My name is Mrs. Rew. I'm guessing you need things for my class." Sydney and Joe both nodded. "Follow me." She walked over to a cabinet and pulled out two books, some paper and some pencils. "There you go. Now I'm sure you have lockers right?"

Sydney and Joe exchanged glances. "No."

"Hmm. Well then we will have to check to see if there are any available." She walked back over to her desk and started to type things into her computer. "You're in luck. We have two lockers left. Lockers 236 and 237. Come on I will show you where they are." They left the room and followed Mrs. Rew into the hallway. Their lockers were right across from the door where they came in this morning. "Here they are. I believe the combinations are inside the lockers. She took out a key from her pocket and opened each of the lockers."

"There you go. Class starts in five minutes so hurry up." She walked back to her classroom. Joe and Sydney looked back at their lockers.

"Well now I feel really loved. Kayla wanted to get rid of us so much she didn't even give us our lockers or any supplies." Sydney crossed her arms.

"I know." They looked inside and found a piece of paper in each of them with the locker's combinations on them. They practiced opening them a few times then grabbed their things out and left for class. The rest of the day was like any other school day. Sydney and Joe got all of their things for their classes. Some of their classes were normal school classes like history, others, not so much. They found out that Mrs. Rew taught Time Theories. This was basically about, well, theories of time and time travel. They had a lot of other interesting classes too. They pretty much hung out with each other the whole day and talked during passing periods which lasted 5 minutes each and reviewed the class they had just finished. They liked Mrs. Rew's the most. She said that in that class they would test some of the theories and play a lot of games. Her class was more interesting than the others. In the other classes all you pretty much did was listen to teachers drone on and on about things like tests, which seemed to be the teacher's favorite subject, and whatever that class was about. All in all, it was a pretty good day. They had decided that this really wouldn't be that bad. But, they would really have to stick together to get through the whole year or however long they were gonna be here. After school they went to Joe's room as usual.

"Ugh." Sydney fell on top of Joe's bed. "My feet are killing me, and that's saying something cause I live, or lived, in Manhattan where we walk everywhere!" She lifted her head to look at Joe. "Wanna give me a foot massage?"

Joe laughed. "Uh, no." He sat down next to her.

She rolled over on her back. "Some of those teachers need to learn how to make a class more interesting. I honestly think I fell asleep five times today."

Joe laughed again. "It doesn't look like it's gonna be all that bad though."

"Yeah, it looks like this will be an interesting year."

"That's for sure."

Sydney sat up. "Well I'm gonna go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow. And try to get up better this time so I don't have to push you off the bed again."

Joe smiled as he remembered what happened this morning. "No promises." Sydney smiled and he smiled back. After a few minutes she left back to her room and Joe went to sleep.


	14. I Feel Sick

**14. I Feel Sick**

Things were pretty normal for a while. It wasn't until they had been going there for a week that problems started to arise. They were in Mrs. Rew's class when Joe looked over at Sydney and noticed she looked really pale and her eyes were cloudy. She was rubbing her wrists a lot too.

After class Joe went up to her. "Are you ok?"

"No. I feel like I could pass out any second, and my wrists are killing me."

"Are the bracelets too tight?"

"No, it's like I can feel my blood pumping through my arms up to my hands and it hurts."

"Maybe we should find Kayla or somebody."

"You think?" She snapped. They put their stuff in their lockers and left to find Kayla. They found her and Nicole talking in the hallway. Sydney could barely walk by then. Joe had to help her. He had his arm around her waist and her arm was over his shoulder. They walked up to them. Nicole and Kayla stopped talking immediately.

"What's wrong?" Nicole hurried over.

"Oh, nothing. I feel like I could go around doing flips and run and pretty much just do anything. I might just go swim with sharks this afternoon."

"You'd swim with sharks?" Kayla looked impressed.

"Not the point!"

"Seriously now." Nicole looked at Sydney.

Sydney sighed. "I don't know. I feel like I could pass out any second. My wrists hurt really bad. It's like I can feel my blood pulsing up through my arms to my hands."

Kayla and Nicole exchanged nervous glances.

"What?" Sydney and Joe asked at the same time.

"Come with us." They followed them through a dark hallway and into a huge empty room.

"Where are we?" Sydney looked around.

"This is the room we use to train. Just wait here a moment."

"Sure, I'll just remain here and quietly die."

Nicole and Kayla went off into the hallway they just came out of. Sydney sat down on a bench. Joe smiled at her.

"What?"

"How, in situations like this, can you be sarcastic about it? It's quite amusing."

Sydney shrugged. "I tend not to focus too much on things, otherwise they'll take over your life or you'll be way too worried about things that aren't really important."

"Well this is kinda an important situation. By the way Kayla and your mom are reacting, you might be in danger."

"Well, until we know for sure, I'm gonna stay not too worried about it. Besides, I rarely put myself first and never care about my own health and safety in case you haven't noticed by now."

Joe rolled his eyes and Kayla and Nicole came back in the room. "We didn't really expect this to happen so soon."

"What? My death?"

Nicole sighed. "Take off the bracelets."

"You don't think I tried? These things are glued to my wrists.

Nicole snapped her fingers. The bracelets glowed green, then faded. "They shouldn't be now. Try to take them off."

Sydney pulled at the bracelets and after a few tugs they came off. There were red lines on her wrists where the bracelets had been. She immediately looked better. Her skin regained color and her eyes looked sharp. Her hands started to glow green. "Uh, explain, please?"

"Well no doubt you heard something about your _special_ powers."

Sydney laughed softly. "I may have overheard some things."

"Well we thought that your powers wouldn't be visible for a few more weeks, at least a month. But it looks like we were wrong. The green glow is actually warp aura."

"Warp what?"

"It's the energy we get for our powers. Yours was being kept in too long and that's why it was making you sick. It needed to be let out in some way."

"So..."

"Well the only thing left is to learn how to control them so that you won't die from them being kept inside you."

"So either I learn how to control them or I die? Wow, my life sucks."

"Well, yes, but they could also just go out of control and do things at random moments. Not good things either. People around you could get hurt."

"Like I said, my life sucks."

"Well once you learn to use it, it can be useful... and fun at times as well."

"Ok. And how do I do this exactly?"

"We help you learn how to do certain things. We can explain more later. Ok?"

"Ok."

"Good. Now tomorrow instead of going to school come here. Don't worry about going back there today. Just go back to your rooms or something." Nicole waved them off. They left and headed back towards their rooms.


	15. Let's Play a Game

**15. Let's Play a Game**

They entered the room where Kayla and Nicole had told them to go.

"Are you going to tell them?" Sydney looked at Joe.

"I will."

"Today?"

"I don't know."

"Why won't you tell them?"

"Because we just met them, I don't know if I'm even correct, and they haven't been open to you about everything so, why should we trust them? Why do you want me to tell them?"

"Because if your part of this whole thing they'll want to know."

Kayla and Nicole walked in. "Ah, your here. Great. Today we start with basics."

"Which would be?" Sydney put her hands on her hips.

"Ping-pong. It tests your reflexes. There are tons of things that would work for this exercise, like air hockey, racket ball, and fooseball. Tennis works too, but a ping-pong ball is harder to hit.

"Um, ok? You guys have weird exercises."

"Well normally we would use our powers, but since you can't control yours yet, we have to do it this way." They walked over to a ping-pong table in the middle of the room. They each grabbed a paddle. Joe and Kayla stood to one side to watch. "Ready?"

"Are you?"

Nicole smiled. She served the ball. The game lasted forever. Neither side giving up. No one had scored. The ball just kept bouncing back and forth. In the end, Sydney ended up winning.

"Not bad." Nicole smiled. Both their arms hurt. "You're better than I thought."

"Don't underestimate me."

"You definitely have very good reflexes. Very useful in battle."

"Ok. What's next?"

"I did have a few things planned, but my arm hurts and it's been four hours. So we will continue tomorrow."

"Fine by me." They set the paddles down.

Sydney and Joe left, but Sydney pulled Joe back. "Where are you going?"

"Uh, back to my room?"

"Nope, you have to tell them."

Joe rolled his eyes. "Fine."

Joe and Sydney went back into the room. Nicole looked over. "You're back?"

Sydney pushed Joe forward. "Joe has something to tell you."

Kayla and Nicole stared at him. "Well?"

"Um, I think I know who the other warrior is in the prophecy." Joe avoided eye contact.

Nicole and Kayla looked shocked. "Who?"

"Me?" He looked up at them. "See, some friends of mine told me I would be part of this big showdown thing, and I think it's the same thing as the prophecy." He explained what happened with Jodie and Freddi.

"It does seem to fit." Kayla looked at Nicole.

"We will have to look further into this." Nicole looked at Joe and Sydney. "We will let you know what we find out."

Joe grabbed Sydney and pulled her out.

"See? That wasn't so hard was it?"

Joe looked at her. "You're kidding right?"

Sydney smiled. "Come on." They walked off.

* * *

The next day Sydney and Joe went off to the room like they were supposed to. When they got there, Nicole and Kayla were arguing about something.

"We have to tell them." Kayla said.

"It's too soon." Nicole said back.

"They have to know sooner or later. It might as well be now." Kayla crossed her arms. When they saw Joe and Sydney they immediately stopped.

"Oh. Hello."

"Hey." They said cautiously.

"What were you guys fighting about?" Sydney looked back and forth between the two.

"We were not fighting, we were debating whether or not we should tell you two something or not." Nicole glanced at Kayla nervously. "I think it's a bad idea."

"What were you going to tell us?"

"We were deciding whether we should tell you the prophecy or not."

"And are you?"

"We probably should-" Kayla began.

Nicole interrupted, "Even though it's a bad idea."

"But necessary." Kayla finished.

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"It's a yes." Nicole sighed.

"It all will start in Greece,

A daughter of time and a warp wizard to be,

Loved ones to be enemies,

A kiss will be goodbye for love,

But in the end, all will be right."

Sydney and Joe looked at each other nervously.

"We have some idea what it means. We already found you two in Greece. A daughter of time and a warp wizard to be, that would be you two. Loved ones to be enemies, if it is this Mad Jack you will fight, that could mean you," She nodded towards Joe, "and him being enemies. And the end… well, we're pretty sure that means someone's going to die."


	16. Montage of Lessons

**16. Montage of Lessons**

The next few weeks went by in a blur. Besides getting over the shock of the prophecy, lessons seemed to be getting more and more intense. Sydney was learning a lot more. Joe even had to participate a few times, 'pre-warp wizard training' Nicole had called it. Nicole and Kayla were right about Sydney having interesting powers. A lot of the stuff she took to easily. When they learned to use time magic, Sydney got it immediately. Apparently, gods had time magic flowing through them. It was in their blood too, that's why time god's blood was green. Sydney learned to make stuff appear out of thin air with the snap of her fingers, produce time energy balls that could cause a lot of damage depending on how powerful they were (Sydney's seemed to be very powerful. She took out a foot thick cement wall her first time), and warp with a few special Latin words, 'Only for now, eventually you'll be able to warp anywhere just by snapping your fingers' Nicole informed her. They also discovered that she could speak Latin very fluently. Turns out, it was the language of time. Even though Joe and Sydney were learning a lot more every day Nicole and Kayla seemed to be getting more and more worried. They couldn't tell if it was because the prophecy was getting closer or something else. Before they knew it one month had passed. At the end of their latest lesson Kayla and Nicole looked scared to death.

"Wow." Nicole and Kayla said breathlessly.

"What?" Joe and Sydney asked.

"You learned so fast." Kayla said.

"Too fast." Nicole added.

"What do you mean? I thought that would be a good thing."

"Tomorrow you will learn the most important lesson of your life. It could be the thing to save us all." Sydney and Joe exchanged nervous glances. "It is very dangerous, but necessary." Nicole stared at them. "Please, go now."

Sydney and Joe looked at each other once more then turned around walked out.

"What do you think they were talking about?" Joe asked.

"I don't know, but I don't think I like it."

"Me neither."

"I wonder how much longer we have."

"Jeez, make it sound like we have a death sentence." He laughed nervously, before getting serious. "I hope we have a while."

"Yeah." They walked a bit more in silence. "I honestly think I'm scared about all this. I'm never scared."

Joe looked at her confused. "Everyone gets scared. What do you mean?"

"I have a guess of who might die. I just hope it's not true."

"Who do think is gonna die?" He wanted to know so he could stop worrying about it.

"I- I'm not sure I should say."

"Come on, you can tell me." Joe smiled at her.

Sydney sighed and stopped. Joe stopped too. Sydney looked up at him. She looked straight into his eyes. "Me." She didn't even wait to see Joe's reaction. She just turned and left. Leaving Joe standing there in the hall, confused and shocked.

* * *

Joe was still shocked by what Sydney had said yesterday. He wasn't really paying much attention, but the next thing he knew, he was dressed, clean, and standing at the door. He walked out and stood at the place where the two hallways split. Sydney was usually already there waiting for him, but today she wasn't. Joe was worried. He walked down the hall. He didn't know exactly where her room was because he had never been there before. So he guessed. He hoped he was right. He opened the door and sighed. Thank god. He saw Sydney sleeping on her bed. Which was weird considering that he noticed she was usually a very early riser. He looked around her room. It looked the same as his, a classic dorm room. Joe heard a mumbling noise. He thought it was Sydney waking up. He glanced over at her. He saw her twisting and turning in her bed muttering loudly. "No… no… don't… not him… please…don't hurt him…I li… I lo… no!" Joe was wondering whether or not to wake her up. He slowly started to walk over to her. She started to mumble and move again. Her covers had been forced off. "No…why…why…I love…now…dead…what…wrong with…you…monster…" Joe couldn't take it. What was she dreaming about? Who was 'he'? Who was 'you'? Whatever she was dreaming about, it was a nightmare. He walked up next to her. Joe started to shake her. She just kept moaning and saying no. She wouldn't wake up. Joe shook her harder. Suddenly her eyes shot open and looked straight into Joe's eyes. The next thing Joe knew, Sydney was tightly hugging him and trying extremely hard to hold back tears, but not doing a very good job of it because Joe felt his shoulders getting wet. Joe hugged her back. Her nightmare must have been really bad. They stayed silent for about five minutes. Sydney stopped crying and hugging Joe. She looked up at him.

"Are you ok?" Joe asked, extremely concerned.

"Fine." She looked away.

"Are you sure?"

"Fine, just a really scary, realistic dream."

"I could tell. You were screaming in your sleep."

"I was?"

"Yeah. What were you dreaming about?" Joe tried to look into her eyes, but she avoided him.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Sydney-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" She glared at him.

"Ok, ok." He held up his hands defensively. "We have to go meet your mom and Kayla, so-"

"Right." She shook her head. "I'll get ready."

"I'll meet you where we usually meet."

"Ya." Sydney waved Joe out and got dressed. When she was ready, she left and met Joe. They walked off towards the training room. They didn't say a thing the whole way. When they got there, Kayla and Nicole looked worried.

"Oh, you're here." She took a deep breathe to compose herself. "Today you will learn the most important, and deadly, thing. _Lux lucis of nex_.

"Light of death?" Sydney asked.

Nicole nodded. "This move is very powerful. It's like the energy balls you made, except with you whole body. It will eliminate everything and anything you want it to within fifteen miles. It could save us all. In the wrong hands, it could be deadly." Nicole got a far off look in her eyes. "But it comes with a catch. A not so good one at that."

"Look, I've had a terrible morning. Just come straight out with it."

"It will also kill you."

Sydney looked like she just got shot. Joe was shocked. Sydney was right with what she said yesterday. She was the one who was going to die.

"We won't practice it due to the… consequences. But I'll tell you this. It is activated by great emotion. You don't have to say much, you just have to feel it. Then say:

_EGO voco nex per totus meus vox,_

_EGO vitualamen meus vita per totus meus vires,_

_Lux lucis of nex, vestri vicis est iam_.

You can go at any time. That is all. You don't have to come back. We'll tell you when it's time."

They left. Sydney stayed silent, deep in thought.

"What are we going to do now?" Joe asked.

"Huh? Oh, I don't know. I'm gonna go lay down. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"Are you ok? With this morning and what just happened…"

"I'm fine." She snapped.

"Ok." Joe froze. He had seen Sydney fight and he didn't want to be on her bad side. Sydney left and went off to her room.


	17. The Beginning of the End

**17. The Beginning of the End**

Mad Jack was in his lair preparing. "Not much longer until I can give Joseph what he deserves. And that girl, she's going to have to feel my wrath too. Forget the space-time continuum for now. I have to get rid of all the obstacles…"

* * *

A few days had passed and not much happened. Sydney stayed in her room most of the time, which made Joe really wonder what her dream was about and what was going through her mind. He was really worried for her. Every once in a while they talked, but not much. Eventually a week had passed, two weeks, three weeks. The first day of what would have been the fourth week, Sydney was in Joe's room and they were talking, after about three days of silence, about what was about to happen in their lives when Kayla and Nicole came in looking very scared, worried, and depressed. Sydney and Joe didn't even have to ask why they were here, they knew. It was time. They silently got up and followed them out of the room. They walked to the room where they had their lessons at. Nicole and Kayla turned around and looked them both in the eyes.

"We're not sure how all this will turn out, so good luck. Jack has been spotted making trouble in Greece. Near where we found you two actually. There isn't much else we can tell you unfortunately." Nicole explained with a solemn expression. Kayla nodded and Nicole hugged Sydney tightly. She nodded to Joe. "We'll miss you."

They stepped back a few feet. Sydney snapped her fingers and they warped out of there. When they landed Joe looked around and immediately knew where they were. The place where it all started, Corfu. They were standing at the lake. Sydney walked over to the wall and looked out at the lake. Joe followed her and did the same.

"I guess the only thing we can look forward to is the last line in the prophecy."

"Yeah, after I die."

"Don't talk like that. We'll be fine. We don't know for sure it's going to be you who's going to die. You don't have to be so sure about it either. It's almost like you want to." As soon as Joe said that he regretted it. Sydney stiffened and looked away. "Sydney you know I didn't mean-"

"I'll do whatever I have to." She sighed and looked at the lake, deep in thought.

"So, what are we supposed to do?"

Sydney snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh? Oh, I guess we just have to wait for your uncle to find us." Silence followed.

"Joe, there's something I want to tell you."

"What?" He looked at her.

"Well, I think that-"

"You don't stand a chance?" Med Jack appeared behind them. They turned to face him.

"Well look who it is." Joe crossed his arms.

"It's about time you showed up." Sydney cocked an eyebrow at him.

Mad Jack smirked. "Not too late to surrender you know."

"And what makes you think we would want to do that?" Joe glared.

"The fact that you will lose. So you might as well quit now."

"Don't plan on it."

"Well I warned you. Let the fun begin." Mad Jack took out his cane. It started to glow bright green. Joe and Sydney stood ready to fight. "Last call to quit. We wouldn't want that little dream of yours to come true. Would we?"

"What are you-" Joe stopped mid-sentence and looked at Sydney. She looked tense and scared. Mad Jack smirked. "Leave her alone, Jack."

Sydney flinched when he said that.

"Be careful what you say. You're closer to repeating her dream than you think."

Joe glanced at Sydney again. She looked really nervous. "Sydney…" Sydney looked at him. "What was your dream about exactly?"

Mad Jack smirked. "Yes, Sydney, what was your dream about?"

Sydney glared at him, and then looked back at Joe. "I- it- this."

"'This' as in this showdown?" Sydney nodded. "Like, you saw what was going to happen?"

"Maybe. I don't know. I hope not."

"Well-"

"Oh can we just get on with it already?"

Joe and Sydney both glared at him. "Do you mind? We're having a conversation. Just wait a second." Sydney rolled her eyes.

"What do you mean, you hope not?"

"Just trust me. This is not something I want to talk about."

"Are you done yet?" Mad Jack tapped his foot impatiently.

They looked at him. Sydney smirked. "Are we?"

Joe smiled. "I guess."

"Finally." Mad Jack gripped his cane. "Oh and before I forget…" He stamped his cane on the ground and there was a sudden gust of air.

"What did you do?"

"Oh, I believe that we're about to find out."

Sydney walked up to him so she was in his face. "What. Did. You. Do?"

"I'd listen if I were you. I've seen what she can do and it's not pretty to be on the receiving end." Joe voiced.

"I'm not worried about that at all." Mad Jack sneered.

"What do you mean?"

"Just try to hurt me."

Sydney looked at him suspiciously. "Did you-"

"Did he what?" Joe was confused.

"Remember how Nicole and Kayla said I get my power from warp aura?"

"Yeah."

"I think the idiot here just got rid of it."

"So he just blasted away the entire warp aura? Try something."

"I am, but nothing's happening."

Mad Jack smirked again.

"So now you can't use any of your powers?"

"Well… there is one I can do. I knew it would come to this…"

"Which one?"

"_Lux lucis of nex_."


	18. This Is It

**18. This is it**

"What is that?" Mad Jack was becoming timid.

"Nothing you need to know." Sydney barked.

"Are you sure? Please, there has to be something else." Joe pleaded.

"I don't want to do it, but it has to be done." Sydney looked back at the oasis behind them. Birds flew by overhead.

"I thought we were done with all the talking."

They ignored him. "So… this is a suicide mission now."

"Yeah."

"Enough of this!" Mad Jack lifted up his cane and shot a green ball out of it.

Sydney jumped out of the way just in time and barely missed it. "Hey!"

"Wake up kid, this is a showdown."

Sydney glared at him and took a step back so she was standing next to Joe again.

"Now, are we going to do this or not?"

"You have no idea what you're asking for." She paused and looked at Joe. "I'm sorry. There's no other way."

"What are you talking about? I made it very clear we were done with talking!" Mad Jack started to throw a fit.

"We have to get him away from here.

"Why?" Joe asked.

"I don't want to ruin this place."

"What are you talking about?" He picked up his cane again and aimed it at Joe and Sydney.

"You wanna know? You'll have to catch us first!" Sydney smirked and grabbed Joe's hand. She bolted towards the hills. Mad Jack ran after them.

"Where are we going?" Joe shouted.

"Giant plain near here. Nothing there to ruin with death."

"Syd-"

Sydney looked over at Joe with sad eyes. "I have to."

"I know."

Sydney looked behind her to see if Mad Jack was still chasing them. He was, but he was having trouble keeping up. She looked back ahead as they ran up a hill and then down the other side.

"This is it."

Joe looked around. Sydney was right. There was nothing here except grass. It looked like they were in a giant bowl, hills surrounded the entire place. Joe looked over to one side and saw the only rock in the whole place. He looked back at Sydney. "Are you sure? It's not too late you know."

Sydney nodded. "Positive. You need to get away."

"What?" Joe was taken aback. Wasn't this supposed to be their fight?

They heard Mad Jack getting closer.

"Go hide behind that rock over there." She pointed to the boulder.

"But-" Sydney grabbed his hand again and pulled him behind the rock. "I-"

They heard Mad Jack. He had gotten to the top of the hill and was getting ready to come down.

"I want to stay out there with you. This is our fight. I'm not leaving you."

"No. I don't want you to get hurt."

"But-"

"I know you're here little time warping brats." Mad Jack had arrived.

"Joe, listen to me. I-"

"No, you listen to me. This is _our_ fight, meaning I'm a part of it to. I'm not letting you go out there and kill yourself. If I help there's probably something else we can do. We can attack physically, trick him into hurting himself, or-"

"Come out, come out where ever you are."

"Joe, please."

"No! I've said what I think and I'm-"

Sydney kissed him on the lips. "_EGO diligo vos_!" She ran around to the other side of the rock. Joe would have said something back and stopped her, but he was too stunned.

"Well, well, there you are. Where's young Joseph?"

"You don't need to worry about him."

"I feel bad for him. He won't get to see his little girlfriend die. No matter, I'll take care of him later. It will be easier without you around. Divide and conquer right?"

"If I go, you're coming down with me."

Mad Jack gave her a funny look. "What-"

"_EGO voco nex per totus meus vox_-"

"What are you saying?"

"_EGO vitualamen meus vita per totus meus vires_-"

"I'm warning you."

"_Lux lucis of nex_-"

"That's it."

"_Vestri vicis est iam_."

"What the-"

Sydney started to glow a bright green and no one knew what happened next. There was a flash of green light and a sudden gust of wind. Joe suddenly came to his senses and jumped to the other side of the rock.

"No!"


	19. Oh My Gods

**19. Oh My Gods**

He was too late. The flash got to its brightest point, and then faded. Nothing was left. Even the grass had died. Joe looked around everywhere to see if he could find Sydney anywhere. No luck. Joe was getting ready to burst into tears. He whipped out _The Book_ and jabbed the buttons really hard. He warped home. By this time a few tears had shed from his eyes. He landed right where he and Sydney had first left. The House of Rock. He looked around, it was around the same time to, and people were still leaving from the concert. Joe ran out of the place all the way back to his house. His mom saw him and tried to say something to him but he ignored her and ran to his room and locked the door. He collapsed on his bed, sobbing. All weekend his mom tried to get into his room to talk to him, but he wouldn't open the door. Eventually Monday came around and he knew he had to go to school. It was the first time he came out of his room all weekend. He got ready, ate breakfast, and left. Never speaking a word. On the way to school he felt like someone was watching him. He spun around to check and punch whoever was there (he had been looking for some way to let out his emotions), but no one was there. School was the same old boring stuff, not that Joe would know, he didn't pay attention the whole day, his mind elsewhere. When Fred and Sam tried to talk to him he just ignored them. Eventually school ended and Joe started to head home. He stopped when he got the feeling that someone was watching him again. He looked around, now annoyed, but again saw nothing. He turned around and was attacked with a fierce grip. Joe had no idea who it was and pushed them off of him. He stared into sunburst, sky blue eyes with a bright green ring around the iris. He smiled and hugged his attacker. Somehow, Sydney was back. "Oh my god, Sydney!" He hugged her really tightly.

"I missed you too, but I'm going to miss life a lot more if you don't stop suffocating me."

Joe released himself. "Sorry. How?" He was almost too bewildered to speak.

"I don't know. I saw a big flash of green light and the next thing I know all I see is darkness. I don't know how long later, but eventually I woke up in my bed in Draylon. I immediately ran to Nicole and Kayla. They were as shocked as me. No one knows how, but somehow, I'm alive." They both smiled and hugged again.

"This is awesome. Now you can move back to New York and we can hang out."

Sydney looked away. "So, after about two months away we end up back at the same time. Weird how that works, huh?"

"Sydney…"

"Hmm?" She looked at him.

"You are staying in New York, aren't you?"

Sydney bit her lip. "Well… I can't."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, no matter how much I hate it, Draylon is my home. I'd love to stay and all, but Nicole won't let me. Something about not yet reaching my true potential as a goddess."

"And since when do you do what you're told?"

Sydney smiled. "Never. I live by my own rules, but still. I have to go back to Draylon. Whether I like it or not. And trust me, I don't. I'm not use to the place, I have no friend's there, most of my family doesn't even know about me, and the family I do know always seems to be hiding something. I don't trust them, I never will, and I'll probably never love them for what happened either."

"Oh." Joe looked down, depressed.

"_But_…"

"But what?"

"You can come back with me. I know you couldn't live there, but there's something I want you to be with me for."

"What?"

Sydney smiled again. "You'll see." She grabbed Joe's hand and snapped her fingers. They warped back to Draylon and landed in Sydney's room. "Come on." She pulled him out of the room and ran down the hall until they practically ran into Kayla and Nicole.

"There you are. I see you found your friend again." Nicole gave Joe an unreadable look.

"About time you came back. You had us worried all over." Kayla said.

"Whatever. Did you tell him yet?"

"Tell who what?" Joe looked back and forth.

"Yes, and he took it surprisingly well. He's very happy."

"And?"

"He has to see you to decide."

"Fine." Joe gave Sydney a questioningly look. She smiled. "Come on, you'll see."


	20. What Can You Do?

**20. What Can You Do?**

They walked to the meeting room. This time only John was in there. He looked up when they walked into the room and jogged over to them.

"Why did you never tell me?"

"I-" He hugged Sydney really tightly before she could finish her sentence. "Is it National Suffocate Sydney Day or something because this is like the twentieth time I've nearly been squeezed to death today."

He let go. "Sorry. Well?"

"Well what?"

"What are your strengths? What can you do? I have to know. If you want to be properly named."

"Uh, well… everything."

"I can't really title you, Goddess of Everything, can I?"

"Sure you can."

John smiled. "I don't think so."

"Well… I don't know." Sydney smiled sheepishly.

"You don't have to decide today you know."

"I know, but I want to. Let's see… I'm really good at all of those time power thingys."

"This is true. She can do things better than anyone I have ever seen. She can even do things I've never seen." Nicole added.

"Well then, I think you can be Sydney, Goddess of Time Arts."

Sydney smiled.

"So that's why you wanted me here." Joe smiled.

"Yup."

"I'm friends with a goddess. That's pretty cool."

Sydney blushed. "Yeah I guess."

"You must be the young lad that was the other part of the prophecy." John voiced in.

"Um, yeah I guess."

"His name is Joe." Sydney informed him.

"Well Joe, thank you." John nodded and smiled proudly.

"You're welcome."

Sydney smiled and rolled her eyes.

"You and your friend are free to go. We will have the official goddess ceremony later tonight. Sadly, it is a god-only affair." He looked at Joe.

They turned around and left.

* * *

"Well that was pretty cool." Joe said.

"Yeah." Sydney replied.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

Sydney looked at him. "What?"

"Well, remember before you… well you know, you kissed me and yelled something at me in Latin."

Sydney blushed. "Oh, that."

"What did you yell?"

"You can't just look it up online?"

"Why can't you just tell me?"

"Because you need to find out on your own. That's why." An awkward silence followed. "I guess you should probably head back to New York now, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Sydney snapped her fingers and they warped back to New York.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye?" Joe looked at her.

"Yeah." Before Joe turned around, Sydney hugged him. He hugged her back.

"Bye."

"Bye." They let go.

"By the way, I still stand by what I said."

"When?"

"What I yelled at you."

"Oh… Wait what?"

Sydney smirked. "_Bye_." She snapped her fingers and warped back to Draylon. Joe smiled and walked home, lost in his memories.


	21. Latin Translation Page

**Latin Language Translation Page**

_Lux lucis of nex_ – Light of death

_EGO voco nex per totus meus vox, EGO vitualamen meus vita per totus meus vires, Lux lucis of nex, vestri vicis est iam _– I summon death with all my power, I sacrifice my life with all my might, light of death, your time is now

_EGO diligo vos_ – I love you


End file.
